Liz Larin | Journal

Fast Rides...
July 25th, 2004

I put the music aside when I got a call to travel to Disney World with my good friend Cynthia Canty and her daughter, my god child, Siabhan. Knowing the Siabhan will be eleven soon, I thought this would be a great opportunity to check in informally with her and see how she is feeling about the world. Remembering that at the age of twelve my world started to get more and more confusing (teenage-hood) I’m readying myself to be a sounding board when the ‘my parents don’t understand me’ phase kicks in.
Cynthia would be doing her radio show with Jim Harper and the crew from Florida during the mornings and Siabhan and I would find our way to the park. Which park? There are five major ones; we narrowed it down the The Magic Kingdom, Epcot Center and Universal-Hollywood. I was fascinated by Epcot Center and the decisions that went into choosing how each country was depicted. I was fascinated by the whole thing! A series of simulated experiences, without the scare. You walk through the area depicting France - you get to see a smaller version of the Tour Eiffel and order a crepe without the scare of whether or not your French is up to par. You walk down a streets made to look like a cartoon version of Hollywood without worried about whether or not you can pay your rent.

And the rides...! Siabhan was fearless, she couldn’t get enough of them. She would no sooner come to the end of one that she was tugging on my hand to go through again! I asked her why people don’t mind standing in line for as long as it takes for these rides. She said that people like to be scared. Here I am thinking that my life is scary enough. Inspired by her fearlessness, I ended up trying a bunch of rides I never would have an the opportunity (without prodding) to do.

The ride that cracked me up the most was the Aerosmith Rockin’ Roller Coaster. You walk into what looks like a record label, then into a recording studio (this is all looking very familiar). You are late for the gig and need to take a ‘really fast car’ (I have nightmares like this) and you end up stepping into what looks like a back alley, hopping into a car, all to the pounding sounds of rock and roll, and going zero to sixty in 2.6 seconds through the streets of LA! Wow -- this looks a lot like my life?!!!

And the music...! Music was seemingly everywhere, and coming out of everything; gardens, water fountains, buildings, parade floats covered in christmas lights. Big other worldly compositions, happy little pieces of music; some serious folks put a lot of time into this place. And the merchandising. You think you have steeled yourself from the power of the mouse and by the end you are picking up Mickey Mouse t-shirts wondering if you should get the green one of the pink one. Amazing.
Siabhan, Cynthia and I had a great time. Siabhan was my fearless little friend, inspiring me to bigger and faster rides. She was gentle with her Aunt Liz. As I found myself on yet another ride, sensing my fear, she would say, ‘just hold my hand.’ It helped, it really did.